The present invention relates to the clamping of machine elements or members, such as bearings, sleeves, sprockets, gears, or the like, to a mounting surface.
Many bearings used in light or medium duty applications are conventionally fitted loose to a shaft and held at one end of an extended inner ring by a collar and setscrew. Such mounting of the bearing, which provides only limited points of contact, often results in excessive fretting and/or inner ring breakage.
It is known to use, in the mounting of anti-friction bearings on a shaft, a wedge-shaped sleeve as shown, for example, in U.S. Patent No. 1,116,845, U.S. Pat. No. 1,957,062, U.S. Pat. No. 2,045,896, U.S. Pat. No. 2,052,108, U.S. Pat. No. 2,098,709, U.S. Pat. No. 2,118,891, U.S. Pat. No. 2,213,400, U.S. Pat. No. 2,228,282, U.S. Pat. No. 2,230,912, U.S. Pat. No. 2,714,538 and U.S. Pat. No. 2,970,018. One problem with the use of a mounting sleeve is that it not only adds parts to the assembly, but increases the time and difficulty of mounting the bearing. Frequently, additional parts, such as collars, locknuts, lockwashers, setscrews, and/or springs are required to clamp the bearing to the shaft. It will be recognized that each different sized bearing will require different sized sleeves and auxiliary parts which must be separately stored and brought together for assembly. Similar difficulties exist in the use of sleeves to mount other machine elements.